Ditching the drink and waking up

getting stuff done

If there was an award for the most neglected blog of the year I’d probably win it so I thought I’d pop in and say hi.

I’m still here, all is pretty good and I’m busy on creative stuff. I hope you’re all good and the year is shaping up to be a good one for you in all ways.

Apologies to anybody who has left comments for me in the last few months and I’ve missed them. I’ve been super busy with other stuff and not checked in here for a long time.

During my ten week counselling course I had to write a written report each week which took up the quota of my brain power reserved for writing and I haven’t managed to get back into the blogging swing since. I’m glad I did the course but I’ve decided not to continue with the training. Although I got all kinds of indirect boosts in confidence, sense of achievement and enjoyed learning something new it was enough for me to realise that it wasn’t the right direction for me to go in. I also came out of it with a renewed motivation to get back to my creative work.

I’ve set up a number of creative project directions and I’m really focused and working hard on it all. There’s even a tiny bit of income starting to happen which is very exciting. I did swear this was the year that I’d make my artwork pay again and I feel like I’m achieving my goals.

I didn’t want to just disappear and leave people wondering what happened. I know I’m going to be busy on other stuff and have lost my momentum and motivation for blogging for now. I’m not shutting the blog down but I’m going to put in on pause. I’ll probably be back at some point in the future and I’ll pop in and read other blogs in the meantime.

Love, strength and hugs to everybody who has been with me on this twisting and turning blogging journey. So many of you have helped me more that you can imagine and I hugely appreciate all the comments and support I’ve received over the last few years here. It’s not goodbye, just bye for now… Take care x

The last couple of days I seem to have emerged from my depression to a degree. It’s a relief. I still don’t feel 100% but I’m a lot better than I was.

I was listening to podcasts at work last weekend and during an interview I heard Paul Chek say that things in the natural world need a winter season, that it’s an important part of the cycle of living. That really struck a chord with me and got me wondering if that was what was happening when I lost all motivation and just slept or vegged out. Once I reframed the depression into a resting winter phase I stopped fighting it and worrying about it and now it seems to have lifted somewhat. Unexpected but also cool.

I love it when I hear a certain phrase or read a particular quote and it just sears through my muddled thinking with a sharp-pointed dose of utter clarity. Aha! moments. Lightning bolt moments. Whatever you want to call them. I’ve had three in the last few weeks although I can’t remember having had one for quite some time before that.

The first one also came whilst listening to a podcast. Robert Lustig M.D. was being interviewed about his latest book, The Hacking Of The American Mind. He pointed out that most people conflate the concepts of pleasure and happiness. Pleasure=happiness, right? Keep chasing the pleasure and the happiness is sure to follow, right? Marketing tells us so. Social media tells us so. Everybody and their dog is telling us so. But it’s a flawed concept.

I was stunned. How could I have got something that simple so wrong? It actually stopped me mid-lift with a dozen tins of soup at face level while I said ‘OMFG!’ out loud. Luckily nobody was around ;D

Pleasure is dopamine driven. Happiness is dependent on serotonin. This is a seriously simplified version of it of course but it serves as a basic representation of the issue at hand. Addictive and excessive pleasure chasing (booze, drugs, food, gambling etc) elevates the levels of dopamine which in turn down-regulates serotonin. So, excessive pleasure chasing actually = less happiness, not more. Of course, it’s one of those fine seesaw balances that human biology is so dependent on.

You also can’t remove the effects of dopamine and hope serotonin and happiness will soar. In his book he writes about a short-lived Parkinson’s drug trial that had this effect and some of the participants fell into severe depression or even committed suicide. Dopamine – and pleasure – is still an essential part of the balance it seems, as long as it doesn’t try to take over. It goes without saying, I’d highly recommend a read of his book. It’s written more with food in mind than alcohol but it still made total sense and I found it extremely helpful to clear up my own thinking.

The second Aha! moment was the winter phase realisation which opened this post.

The third happened a few days ago and involves quotes from The Miracle Of Mindfulness by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh.

During one of my long inert phases flopped out on the sofa I was trying to observe my thinking and work out what was getting in the way of me being motivated to do anything. Any possibility I presented brought up a stream resistance and judgement which talked me out of doing anything.

Shall I do some housework? No, it’s boring and dull. Once it’s finished it’s just time to start it again; it’s pointless, there’s always more dirty laundry or dishes. I’m depressed, I want to be entertained not be slaving away.

Shall I cook some healthy food? Ugh, too much effort and what was I just saying about dirty dishes?! Takeaway is so easy and tasty, I don’t care right now if it’s healthy or not.

Shall I go for a walk? Then you’ll have to see other people. People are shit. They’re loud, inconsiderate, rude, mean etc. It’s just easier to stay home, on the sofa. I’ve got no energy anyway, balls to that.

Shall I do some creative work? I don’t know, it seems like hard work. I’ve lost my way a bit with all that. I’m not getting the results I want. It’s all too much effort, just stick Netflix back on.

Those are just a few examples. It was an eye-opener how negative and fear-based it all was. It became clear that the only place my conscious thinking mind was taking me was where I already was, sprawled out of the sofa with box sets and the cat. Fortunately I managed to switch the TV off and fire up my kindle which is when the next improvement happened.

I’ve thought I’ve known about mindfulness-of-breath meditation for many years now but one simple line in the book suddenly brought a new and deeper understanding:

‘Our breath is the bridge from our body to our mind…’ I switched from the breath just being a ‘thing’ to be used as a focus for meditation to realising that devoting a portion of my awareness to always staying aware of my breath I could also be aware of my body and of being in the present moment no matter what was happening around me. I have been doing this for a few days now, as often as possible, not just during meditation sessions. It’s making a huge difference.

The next line that made an impact seemed to provide an answer to the mental quandries I wrote about earlier, the fears and resistances that keep me from carrying out even the simplest tasks. ‘The feeling that any task is a nuisance will soon disappear if it is done in mindfulness’. Oooh! how appropriate. And it does seem to work. I’ve been making my awareness of my breathing my number one priority as much as possible and the last few days I’ve been out and about running errands, catching up on shopping and laundry, cooking healthy food, making breakthroughs and defining my creative directions. No mental pushing necessary. What a difference, it’s almost unbelieveable.

What’s odd is that I’ve had this book on my kindle for at least two years but never got round to reading it. When I was in my low moment on the sofa I talked to my version of a higher-power-thingy and asked for guidance on how to move forward and break out of this state. I have no idea why I just suddenly had the urge to read this particular book but now I’m wondering why it took me so long. I have a comedic image of my infinite-light-being-guide-whatever doing a huge long face-palm groaning, ‘It’s on your kindle dumbass!’ LOL! Oh well, better late than never.

I hope you all have a few Aha! moments of your own this weekend. Sober hugs and strength to anybody who’s struggling and wondering if it’s all worth it. It is, keep going. Keep warm and take care xx

I’m over five months sober now. Crikey! I had a week or so of feeling really blah, just uninspired and restless. I was mourning the pink cloud days and getting into a bit of an ‘Is this it?’ sort of slump. One day I was feeling particularly scattered, frustrated and cranky so I did my self-care duty and went to the woods for a walk.

I’d been sitting on my butt for a couple of days and my right hip felt tight and painful. I started slowly and concentrated on the beautiful surroundings. Gradually my mood improved and I remembered how much I need physical activity to feel good. Once I got warmed up, I really got going. I was yomping along in a really strange mood that I can’t quite describe. I think ‘fierce’ is the best word for how I felt. It just crept up on me. I made sure I put on a friendly smile whenever I passed somebody in an attempt to not look weird or scary. I probably shouldn’t have worried though. I’ve been repeatedly told that I look sweet, innocent and even angelic (huh?) No matter what darkness is stirring on the inside, on the outside I apparently look about as badass as Bambi.

That fierce, determined feeling seems to have stuck around to a degree. I’ve been looking forwards and getting fired up by lots of creative ideas and life possibilities. I have a sense of being ready to open up and explore, to grab hold of life in a way I never could while drinking. The balance seems to have tipped even more away from the ‘look what I’m giving up’ thoughts towards the ‘holy shit, look what I’m getting!’ thoughts. I appreciate the shift very much and I hope it continues. I also accept that it may not. I’ll make the most of it for now.

I’ve set up a separate blog for my illustrated poems and other creative sobriety-related stuff. I want to keep it completely separate from here. This blog is more my personal warts and all, let it all hang out kind of space. The other one is going to be more of an inspirational quotes, ideas and resources spot. I’m still not ready to go loud and proud so I’m writing it under a pseudonym and the artwork is different enough from my more commercially aimed work that I won’t ‘out’ myself (I hope). If you’ve enjoyed the bits of poetry I’ve posted here then come and visit at relightinglife.com. That’s the only time I’ll link to it and I definitely won’t be linking from there to here. Yup, separate it is.

I now have that wonderfully, thoroughly tired feeling that only physical exertion can bring. I walked almost 9 miles this morning. My legs are aching and I’m hearing my bed calling my name. I wonder if I can managed an episode of Game of Thrones before I fall asleep? I’m going to try 🙂

I hope you’ve all had a good week and wishing you a lovely weekend whatever you’re up to. Love and sober hugs x

I’m remembering how much time seems to expand and how tons of stuff gets done when I step away from the booze. I’ve been procrastinating less about the routine stuff like cooking, laundry and dishes. Today I managed to put up two pinboards in my home office which I’ve been wanting to do for months. This has cleared a bit of space in the spare room where the pinboards were being stored. It also means I’ve moved all the sketches, colour charts etc off my desk and onto the wall, leaving my desk fairly tidy.

I’ve also updated my satnav which I’ve been meaning to do for ummm… four years!

What strikes me as ridiculous is how easy these small jobs actually are so how the hell can I have put them off for so long? Why spend four years driving around and swearing at dodgy satnav directions when finding the right cable and plugging it into my laptop for an update took about ten minutes? It’s crazy.

I’ve come to the conclusion that my sober head seems to be able to simply take one thing at a time without over complicating things. My drinking / recovering from a drinking session head would have thought of all the possible problems with, for example, the simple job of putting the pinboards up:

‘I don’t know where the hammer / nails / string / hanging hooks are and can’t be bothered to look for them…’
‘I might not put them up level…’
‘It might be one of the rooms where the plaster is still the original victorian stuff that bends nails because it’s so hard…’and so on…

Yes, I had to hunt down all the necessary tools and bits for the job but it didn’t take that long. No, they’re not perfectly level but now they’re covered in sheets of A4 I don’t notice at all. Yes, it was the horrible old plaster that’s like concrete and it took me a few nails to poke deep enough to get a stable grip but I got there in the end. And yes, I now get to feel ridiculously pleased with myself for getting it done rather than deciding it’s all too much hassle and getting drunk instead.

Each job I tackle in my home and daily life feels like a step towards a simple and organised life. Each day I don’t drink feels like a step towards a simple and organised mind. It feels good 🙂